06 May 2016

The Buckolls of Portslade, Hove & Brighton

This unusual surname belonged to family members living in
Preston, Hove, Portslade and Brighton. It seems they were resident for a
considerable time because their name occurs in official records from the 16th
century to the 19th century.

Court Rolls of Preston – There is a mention of John
Buckholte living at Hove in 1562 and in 1563 Robert Buckholte was elected
constable. The family owned a garden and half-a-virgate of land in Preston.

In 1718 John Buckoll, son of John Buckoll, was apprenticed
to Peter Marchant of Lewes, peruke maker, for seven years. It was a long
apprenticeship and so some skill must have been involved. A peruke was another
name for a wig, which gentlemen habitually wore at that time. When Godfrey
Kneller painted a portrait of George I (1714-1727) he was wearing a most
extravagant wig of brown curls that descended below his shoulders.

On 23 October 1708 a deed was drawn up between John
Buckoll of Portslade, tailor, and John Roper of Portslade, wheelwright because
of an impending wedding. John Buckoll wished to marry Mary Daniel of Lewes,
spinster, who was the sister-in-law of John Roper, and daughter of the late
Adam Daniel of Brighton, blacksmith. In this deed Buckoll handed over to Roper
a cottage and adjoining garden in the main street of Portslade. Unfortunately,
it is impossible to tell exactly where this cottage was situated because the
names High Street and South Street did not come into use until quite late in
the 19th century. The property had been leased from Elizabeth
Westbrook, Lady of Portslade Manor at a rent of one shilling. However, there
was a heriot of 6/8d; a heriot was the equivalent of death duty.

It is interesting to note that John Roper also took
apprentices to learn the trade of wheelwright. In 1711 one apprentice was John Ashwell,
son of the late Isaac Ashwell of Newmarket, and his apprenticeship was for
three years at a cost of £5. His second apprentice was William Davy, son of
John Davy of Clayton, husbandman, and his apprenticeship cost £7 for seven
years.

In 1721 John Buckoll made a haystack in Portslade near the
west part of Mr Kempe’s barn on common land by permission of the Lord and Lady
of the Manor but it had to be removed by 25 March.

On 25 March 1725 John Stone of Slaugham was apprenticed to
John Buckoll of Portslade, tailor, for seven years at a cost of £10.
(Incidentally, the appearance of 25 March in these two records is of interest
because it was also Lady Day, the festival of the Annunciation, and a Quarter
Day in legal terms).

On 30 November 1740 John Buckoll, tailor, died aged 67. In
his will he left £10 a year to his wife Mary on condition that the house,
stable, outhouses and garden went to their son Thomas after she had had the use
of them. He gave money to his other sons John and Stephen. John Buckoll was
buried close to the south side of St Nicolas Church, Portslade and his
beautiful tombstone with its excellent lettering is one of the finest to be
seen in the churchyard.

On 16 March 1744 Thomas Buckoll died aged 38 and was
buried next to his father. Both tombstones are in an excellent stated of
preservation due in part of the shelter from the elements provided by the
adjacent porch.

Not quite so fortunate was another stone to a Buckoll who
died on 1 June 1789. The stone broke in half and the late John Greenfield
restored it and it was placed near the tower.

The tombstones indicate a family of some wealth. However,
it seems one branch of the Buckoll family must have fallen on hard times
because widow Buckoll had nobody to support her and was reduced to asking the
Portslade Overseers of the Poor for assistance. The Account Book records that
on 8 May 1771 eleven shillings was paid for half-a-hundred of faggots for Dame
Buckoll. Such help was only available for local residents. She survived a few
more winters and it was recorded that Elizabeth Buckoll, widow, was buried at
Portslade on 26 February 1775.

Brighton Buckolls

It is difficult to ascertain exactly what kind of business
James Buckoll was in at the start of his business life. Was he perhaps a stationer
and also acted as a place where information might be obtained? In the Sussex
Weekly Advertiser (28 January 1771) the London Union Society placed a
notice in which it said abstracts could be obtained from Mr Buckoll of
Brighton. It seems he must have taken other partners into his business because
in the same newspaper on 23 April 1787 there was a notice stating the White
Horse Inn, Rottingdean, was to be let and details could be obtained from
Messrs Grover, Killick and Buckoll.

A 1906 illustration of Shoreham Harbourfrom the Brighton Season Magazine

The names Grover and Killick are significant because
Buckoll was later associated with them in a coal merchant and brewing
enterprise.

In an official document of 1789 James Buckoll of Brighton
was described as a coal merchant. Perhaps his coal was imported through
Shoreham Harbour rather than being landed on the shingle beach at Brighton. At
any rate his name is to be found on a petition relating to New Shoreham Harbour and dated 19 January 1789 where as well as being a coal merchant he was also
described as an owner, which must mean he was a ship-owner too. In 1760 a new
cut was made to improve access to Shoreham Harbour. This was necessary because
by the 1750s the drift of shingle had driven the mouth of the River Adur as far
as The Wish, which is where Aldrington Recreation Ground is today. At first the
new cut at Kingston was a great success but not many years passed before
shingle became a problem once more and further action needed to be taken.

Later on in 1789 James Buckoll’s business was known as
Grover, Killick and Buckoll, coal merchants and brewers. On 27 July 1789 there
was a report that a robbery had taken place in the counting house belonging to
the firm.

The brewery was situated off the west side of West Street
near the sea end and had been founded in 1769. In 1789 Philip Vallance married
Maria Fayres-Killick, which is how the Vallances became associated with the
brewery. Buckoll decided to leave. Mary Grover, Robert Killick and James
Buckoll put a legal notice in the Sussex Weekly Advertiser (18 January
1790) stating that the partnership had been dissolved and henceforth the firm
would be known as Killick & J., P. & J. Vallance. It was soon
simplified to Killick & Vallance and that name lasted until 1797. By the
following year the Killick name had disappeared and John, Philip and James
Vallance ran the firm. The coal merchant business was also run from West
Street.

It may be that James Buckoll had made enough money to be
able to retire in comfort. It is a fact that by 17 September 1792 he was
described as a Brighton gentleman and his name appeared on a list of Game Duty
Certificates. James Buckoll, gentleman, died in 1796.

It is interesting to note that the Vallances also made
enough money from their business to rise up the social scale too. The Vallances
became gentlefolk and the second largest landowners at Hove, besides residing
in Hove Manor and entertaining the Prince Regent, while a younger member of the
family built Brooker Hall, now Hove Museum.

Stephen Buckoll first appears on the scene in 1788 when
his name was on a list of men holding Game Duty Certificates and James Buckoll
was also on the list. Was the licence for their personal use or was it another
string in the bow of Buckoll businesses? It is interesting to note that in 1794
the names of the same two Buckolls were included in the Game Duty Certificate
list and so was John Hicks who ran the Old Ship Hoteland presumably
needed such a document for the benefit of his clientele. Stephen Buckoll was
still on the Game List in 1796

But Stephen Buckoll started another enterprise and in
January 1793 S. Buckoll & Son advertised their boarding school for young
gentlemen at 43 West Street, Brighton. In this Stephen Buckoll was something of
a pioneer because by the middle of the 19th century Brighton and
Hove had become a hot spot for private schools catering for young gentlemen and
ladies. The bracing climate had something to do with it plus the needs of
parents living in far-flung parts of the British Empire who wanted to send
their children home for an education.

The Buckoll School was no dull house of learning. They put
on dramas too and the students were so good that in 1794 someone felt moved to
send a letter of appreciation to the newspaper about their theatrical
performance.

Perhaps the school was so successful that larger premises
were necessary. At any rate, by 1795 the ‘respected academy’ had moved to the
upper end of North Street, Brighton.

It seems Stephen Buckoll also made the transition to the
upper classes because a deed of 1801 mentions a Stephen Buckoll of Brighton,
gentleman, and his brother Revd James Buckoll of Cirencester.

In Leppard’s Directory 1839-1840 R.D. Buckoll is recorded
at 23 West Street, Brighton; he was an accountant, copyist, house and general
agent and so he followed in the path of Buckoll multiple enterprises.